PINKUNOIZU - PEEP EP
Full Time Hobby

A band from Copenhagen, named after the Japanese word for ‘pink noise’ – and what could be better than that? – Pinkunoizu are described on the press release as ‘an exotic mixture of lo-fi, high-life, shoegaze, Krautrock, nu-folklore, 60’s Asian pop and post-apocalypse future rock’ – which is a lot to live up to in the space of three tracks. That they don’t really manage it isn’t really a surprise then.

Opener Time Is Like a Melody is a (deliberately) plodding effort that feels like the intro to something that never arrives, definitely fitting the ‘lo-fi’ element of the description and also, arguably, rather dull. At just under four minutes, it’s by far the shortest of these tracks.

Everything is Broken or Stolen is better, with a heady mix of tribal rhythms, distorted instrumentalism and looping sounds that manages to have a slightly hypnotic feel. At eight minutes, it’s rather laboured though.

Dairy Queen, which clocks in at eleven long minutes, is unfortunately a return to the ponderous, indulgence of the first track (Everything is Broken is indulgent too, but at least has a bit of life to it). There’s a knack to making long, spaced-out musical trips, but these guys are no Pink Floyd unfortunately. While the track picks up around the six-minute point, it’s too little too late, and the messy, Asian flavoured finale is pointless.

In the end, Pinkunoizu seem to be trying a bit too hard to be edgy and experimental, especially as what they’re doing isn’t that new anyway. They are not disinteresting, but much of this felt like hard work to be honest.

DAVID FLINT

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